WHY- 


•?  ^^ 


Cfie  RISH 


HUMPfffieYJ.D€SMOND 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 


Clean  literature  and  clean 
womanhood  are  the  keystones 
of  civilization: — this  aphoris- 
tically  defines  the  ideals  of 
The  Devin-Adair  imprint. 


llillillllllllll!!lllllll!llilll'l!!IIIIIIIIIIIII!lillillllllllll!lllli^ 


WHY  GOD  LOVES 
THE  miSH 

By 
HUMPHREY  J.  DESMOND,  LL.D. 


" Inflamed  with  the  study  of  learning 
and  the  admiration  of  virtue;  stirred 
up  with  high  hopes  of  living  to  be 
brave  men  and  worthy  patriots,  dear 
to  God  and  famous  to  all  ages." 
— Milton. 


NEW  YORK 
THE    DEVIN- ADAIR    COMPANY 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^^^ 


Copyright.  1918,  by 
The  Devin-Adair  Compant 


All  rights  reserved  by  the  Devin-Adair  Company 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LfiRABV 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MA 


CONTENTS 


PAOE 


Foreword vii 

Appreciation xv 

I.     Saints  and  Scholars       .     .  3 

II.     Undying  Nationhood       .      .  15 

III.  The  Leaven  of  Democracy  33 

IV.  The  Sea-divided  Gael     .      .  53 
V.     Wit  and  Grit 73 

VI.     Irish  Idealism       ,      .      .      •  95 


FOREWORD 

By  Joseph  I.  C.  Clarke 
President-General  of  the  American  Irish  His- 
torical Society 

EVERYBODY  with  a  heart  that 
beats  with  the  love  of  humanity  at 
large,  no  less  than  the  Irish  themselves, 
will  find  joy  and  refreshment  in  this 
demonstration  by  our  author  of  a  theme 
so  unconsciously  daring  as  "Why  God 
Loves  the  Irish."  His  treatment  of  the 
problem  involved  amply  relieves  the  Al- 
mighty of  making  the  slightest  mistake 
in  His  well-known  preference  for  the 
branch  of  the  Celtic  race  which  made 
Ireland  its  home  and  a  fresh  point  of 
departure  for  capturing  the  esteem  and 
[vii] 


FOREWORD 


love  and  good  things  of  the  rest  of  the 
world. 

In  the  clearer  light  of  the  higher 
thought  things  steal  upon  the  vision  that 
to  the  grosser  senses  in  the  poorer  glow 
of  what  is  aptly  called  "common"  sense 
had  an  altogether  different  aspect. 
There  are  Irish  writers  who  pass  their 
time  dwelling  on  the  misfortunes  of  their 
race.  Not  so  Mr.  Desmond.  He  sees 
something  better,  something  finer,  some- 
thing infinitely  cheering  in  it  all.  And 
he  tells  it  in  his  own  way,  making  the 
reader  his  accomplice  before  he  is  aware 
of  it.  When  he  has  won  you  to  admira- 
tion by  some  startling  fact  in  the  world- 
round  Irish  story,  he  drops  in  an  Irish 
anecdote,  a  welcome  quip,  a  bit  of  quot- 
ed epigram  that  wakens  a  laugh  or  at 
least  a  sympathetic  smile  to  testify  to 
[viii] 


FOREWORD 


your  enjoyment.  And  the  modest  bulk 
of  his  book  shows  that  he  has  trusted  to 
the  force  and  cogency  and  not  the  ex- 
hausting length  of  his  argument.  Read 
it  and  discover  it  all. 

The  author's  theme  will  awaken  many 
grave  minds  to  some  wrestling  with  the 
olden  question  of  the  human  aspect  of 
God's  providence.  How  many  have 
avoided  seeking  a  conclusion  thereon, 
and  have  left  it  among  the  unsolvable 
mysteries  I  Even  those  who,  in  the  rap- 
tures of  piety,  adore  the  Creator  as 
the  divine,  all  embracing  principle  of 
love  and  question  not  His  duress  to  His 
creatures,  seek  no  solution  this  side  of 
the  grave  of  the  hard  fate  meted  out  so 
often  to  His  deserving  children.  Our 
author  does  not  refer  the  question  to  the 
next  world  so  far  as  the  Irish  are  con- 
[ix] 


FOREWORD 


cemed,  and  he  has  perspicacity  enough 
to  see  that  by  a  parallel  road  the  Jews, 
so  long-suffering  through  the  ages,  are 
marching  along  with  the  Celts  of  Ire- 
land to  new  and  greater  victories  than 
marked  their  story  of  old.  The  process 
modernises  the  equation. 

A  learned  Japanese  chemist  has  been 
lately  proclaiming  that  the  subtle  fla- 
vors of  all  our  staple  foods  are  simply 
slight  variants  of  a  single  definite  sub- 
stance whose  presence  is  to  be  accounted 
for  as  Dame  Nature's  sly  recommenda- 
tion to  the  human  palate  of  all  things 
truly  edible.  No  doubt  at  all  the  ingre- 
dients of  the  Irish  soul  include  a  similar 
essence,  and  its  richness  is  to  my  mind 
one  of  the  proofs  of  what  our  author  so 
powerfully  and  merrily  contends  for — 
the  love  of  God  for  the  Irish. 

[X] 


FOREWORD 


One  of  the  great  defenses  of  the  Irish 
even  in  Ireland's  darkest  century  was 
their  sense  of  humor.  And  what  an  as- 
set is  an  indestructible  cheerfulness !  He 
who  laughs  at  fate  will  outlive  it.  He 
surely  has  something  beside,  some  su- 
perior fibre  of  being  that  will  tell  in 
time.  But  God's  love  of  the  Irish,  de- 
spite their  material  plight  and  their  long 
cheerless  outlook  to  other  eyes,  was 
shown  when  He  imbedded  in  their  na- 
ture courage,  devotion  to  ideals,  and  a 
love  of  learning  that  never  was  crushed 
out  and  failed  not  even  when  access  to 
the  founts  of  knowledge  was  denied 
them  for  a  couple  of  hundred  years. 
Here,  then,  was  a  stored  soul  energy,  a 
latent  brilliancy  of  intellect,  both  await- 
ing a  providential  lifting  of  the  weight 
of  oppression.  It  came,  as  it  had  to 
come, 

[xi] 


FOREWORD 


The  Irish  who  left  Ireland  soon 
proved  that  the  Celt  had  conquering  ele- 
ments and  winning  qualities  to  make 
rosy  his  way.  What  figure  of  power 
and  intellect  Irishmen  have  made  in 
the  world,  and  particularly  in  our  great 
Republic  of  America,  must  answer,  in 
the  light  of  fame,  for  such  rude  con- 
quest as  the  peoples,  luckier  materially, 
have  made  in  masses  with  the  sword. 
The  American  Irish  have  a  record  to  be 
proud  of.  How  aptly  our  author  quotes 
Chesterton:  "Rome  has  conquered  na- 
tions, but  Ireland  has  conquered 
races." 

One  joins  heartily  in  the  author's 
glorying  in  the  risen  fortunes  of  the 
Gael  and  his  pervasive  and  cheery  pres- 
ence in  posts  of  honor  and  emolument  all 
round  the  globe — posts  won  by  brain- 
[xii] 


FOREWORD 


power  and  sustained  by  physical  power 
that  is  and  has  been  his  trade-mark — 
the  invariable  accompaniment  of  the 
stalwart  reproductiveness  of  his  race. 
Nothing  that  I  know  of  has  touched  this 
off  more  happily  than  the  lines  in  T. 
C.  Irwin's  wonderful  "Potato-Digger's 
Song": 

As  the  great  sun  sets  in  glory  furled. 

Faith,  it's  grand  to  think  as  I  watch  his  face. 

If  he  never  sets  on  the  English  world. 
He  never,  lad,  sets  on  the  Irish  race. 


[xill] 


APPRECIATION 

By  Maurice  Francis  Egan 

Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary of  the  United  States  to 
Denmark 

COMING  back  to  God's  own  coun- 
try, not  in  the  best  of  health  or 
spirits,  I  find  a  glimpse  of  real  enjoy- 
ment in  Desmond's  "Why  God  Loves 
the  Irish."  Much  of  my  early  educa- 
tion had  taught  me  that  God  loved  the 
Jews, — in  Philadelphia  we  still  read  the 
Old  Testament, — but  I  had  never  been 
taught  that  He  specially  loved  the  Irish, 
though  I  knew  that  they  loved  Him, — 
principally  because  they  felt  that  one 
day  He  would  properly  chastise  the 
[xv] 


APPRECIATION 


English!  But  that  is  past  now;  and 
Desmond  has  made  me  understand  seri- 
ously why  God  loves  the  Irish ;  for  one 
reason  they  are  in  love  with  perfection 
and  consequently,  in  love  with  God. 

Every  Irish  father  who  wants  his 
children  to  be  proud  of  the  good  blood 
in  them  would  do  well  to  buy  this  little 
volume;  it  will  make  better  Americans 
of  them,  and  make  them  understand 
that  they  must  live  up  to  the  traditions 
of  a  great  race. 

I  am  filled  with  envy  when  I  think 
that  it  is  a  descendant  of  those  foreign- 
ers, the  Desmonds,  who  is  moved  to 
write  this  enchanting  book.  It  ought  to 
Have  been  an  out-and-out  Celt; — but, 
nevertheless,  it  will  help  people,  like  the 
O'Sullivans  and  the  MacEgans  and  the 
Murphys  and  the  O'Reillys,  to  forget 
[xvi] 


APPRECIATION 


that  these  Desmonds  were  ever  Nor- 
mans. 

It  is  no  use  for  men  of  Irish  blood  to 
imagine  that  their  children  will  under- 
stand the  value  of  the  qualities  of  that 
blood,  unless  they  are  taught  something 
of  its  glories. 

Let  me  thank  you  for  sending  the  vol- 
ume to  me;  it  will  save  me  the  wear  and 
tear  of  choosing  proper  Christmas  and 
birthday  gifts  for  the  rest  of  my  life. 


[xvii] 


'*The  nations  have  fallen,  and  thou  still  art 
young; 
Thy  sun  is  but  rising,  when  others  are  set; 
And  tho'  slavery's  cloud   o'er  thy   morning 
hath  hung, 
The  full  noon  of  freedom  shall  beam  round 
thee  yet. 
Erin,  O  Erin,  tho'  long  in  the  shade. 
Thy  star  will  shine  out  when  the  proudest 

shall  fade." 

— Moore, 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 


SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 


SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 

WE  spent  a  few  hours  with 
Michael  Davitt,  one  afternoon, 
during  his  last  visit  to  this  country.  The 
conversation  drifted  to  the  topic  nearest 
his  heart — the  future  of  the  Irish  people 
the  world  over,  and  especially  their  so- 
cial betterment. 

Some  facts  of  the  United  States  cen- 
sus were  then  fresh  in  our  mind,  in  con- 
nection with  a  study  we  were  making 
of  Irish  immigration.  We  thought  it 
would  interest  Mr.  Davitt  to  have  the 
figures  of  the  United  States  census, 
showing  that  Irish- Americans,  propor- 

[3] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

tionately,  led  all  other  Americans  in  one 
special  vocation — that  of  teaching. 

There  were  fifty  per  cent,  more  Irish- 
Americans  acting  as  guardians  of  the 
law  in  the  capacity  of  policemen,  than 
there  were  Irish- American  liquor  deal- 
ers. And  there  were  three  times  as 
many  Irish-American  teachers  as  there 
were  Irish- American  policemen. 

This  information  was  very  pleasing 
to  Mr.  Davitt,  who  said: 

"It  is  racial!  It  is  characteristic!  It 
is  the  old  function  of  the  Celt  reassert- 
ing itself.  We  were  once  'the  Isle  of 
Saints  and  Scholars.'  We  taught  Eu- 
rope. They  tried  to  degrade  us  with 
penal  laws  and  landlordism,  but  these 
things  are  passing  and  we  are  reassert- 
ing ourselves.  We  belong  in  the  school- 
rooms of  the  world!" 
[4] 


SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  twentieth  back 
to  the  seventh  and  ninth  centuries,  when 
Ireland  was  "the  light  of  Western  Eu- 
rope" ;  but  the  testimony  in  the  case  may 
be  found  in  the  pages  of  many  erudite 
German  and  French  writers. 

"Till  the  Norse  invasion  broke  over 
Ireland,  at  the  end  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, the  Irish  Church  was,  both  in 
learning  and  in  missionary  enthusiasm, 
the  pioneer  of  European  progress,"  says 
Prof.  J.  Howard  Masterman,  M.  A.  of 
Oxford,  in  his  "Rights  and  Responsi- 
bihties  of  National  Churches,"  p.  5 
(1908). 

This  time  the  wise  men  came  from  the 
West,  and  not  only  as  missionaries,  but 
as  teachers.  Irish  bishops  occupied  sees 
in  France,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and 
Italy,  a  chain  of  Irish  monasteries  ex- 
[5] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

tended  from  Brittany  to  Bulgaria,  and 
the  names  of  more  than  two  hundred 
Irish  saints  went  upon  the  calendar  of 
Christendom. 

The  Irish  saint  next  in  repute  to  St. 
Patrick — St.  Columbkille — made  lona 
the  island  fortress  of  western  Christian- 
ity, from  which,  for  a  hundred  years,  is- 
sued a  stream  of  missionaries  and  teach- 
ers. It  was  upon  his  visit  to  this  spot, 
many  centuries  later,  that  Dr.  Johnson 
wrote  the  resounding  words :  "That  man 
is  little  to  be  envied  whose  patriotism 
would  not  gain  force  on  the  plains  of 
Marathon  or  whose  piety  would  not 
grow  warmer  among  the  ruins  of  lona." 

Northern  England,  as  well  as  Scot- 
land, was  evangelized  by  Irish  monks, 
and  hundreds  of  English  students 
crossed  the  Irish  Sea  to  study  in  Irish 
[6] 


SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 

colleges.  By  what  perverse  fate  do 
we  find  other  Englishmen,  a  thousand 
years  later,  coming  to  Ireland  to  stamp 
out  her  fires  of  learning  by  acts  of  Par- 
liament !  The  penal  laws  not  only  ban- 
ished the  priest,  but  they  outlawed  the 
schoolmaster.  The  rudiments  of  educa- 
tion had  to  be  retained  by  stealth : 

Within  the  lonely  rath,  beneath  the  moun- 
tain fern, 
The    schoolmaster    and    scholar    met,    felo- 
niously  to  learn. 

This  incorrigible  people  could  not  be 
reduced  to  ignorance,  because  they 
could  not  forget  their  heritage  of  learn- 
ing and  the  tradition  that  they  once  held 
the  intellectual  hegemony  of  Europe. 
So  to-day  and  in  the  years  immediately 
preceding  the  present  great  European 
[7] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

war,  our  immigration  officials  report 
that  of  the  army  of  Irish  immigrants 
landing  at  our  ports,  but  slightly  over 
one  per  cent,  are  illiterate. 

Our  literature  teems  with  eulogies  of 
the  Puritans  and  the  Huguenots,  be- 
cause of  the  sturdy  moral  qualities  they 
developed  out  of  trials  and  persecu- 
tions. The  Irish  and  the  Jews  passed 
through  far  more  drastic  ordeals;  but 
because  there  is  not  that  clear  thinking 
which  perceives,  above  all  prejudice, 
that  the  admirable  thing  is  the  heroism 
of  the  struggle,  rather  than  one's  par- 
ticular liking  for  the  principles  or  the 
beliefs  preserved,  the  Irishman  and  the 
Jew  have  not  been  adequately  appreci- 
ated. They  do  not,  however,  themselves 
fail  in  mutual  recognition  of  the  higher 
altitudes  they  occupy. 
[8] 


^ 


SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 

A  Jewish  mayor  in  an  Iowa  city  made 
the  opening  address  at  St.  Patrick's 
church  fair.  He  paralleled  what  the 
Jews  and  the  Irish  had  endured  to  pre- 
serve their  faiths.  He  grew  eloquent 
over  the  fidelity  of  the  Irish;  like  the 
Jews,  they  had  sat  by  the  rivers  of 
Babylon  and  wept  as  they  remembered 
Zion.  "And,  my  friends,  let  me  say,  in 
conclusion,  that  I  was  born  a  Jew,  I 
have  lived  a  Jew,  and  in  all  probability 
I  will  die  a  Jew;  but  if  ever  I  should 
have  occasion  to  change  my  religion,  I 
would  become  an  Irish  Catholic." 

The  Irish  race  preferred  their  con- 
science arid  their  religion  to  peace  and 
prosperity.  That  is,  fundamentally, 
the  preference  which  leads  a  man  of 
honor  to  adhere  to  his  principles  even  at 
the  cost  of  advancement  and  emolu- 

[9] 


i 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

ment.  In  the  valuations  of  citizenship, 
one  such  man  is  worth  ten  other  men  of 
sordid  motive  and  apathetic  spirit.  The 
ordeal  by  which  the  Irish  as  a  race  have 
proven  themselves — their  steadfastness 
to  their  beliefs — should  justify  a  high 
appraisal  of  their  qualifications  for  citi- 
zenship, particularly  in  the  matter  of 
moral  courage.  And  this  has  been  ex- 
emplified wherever  the  Irishman  has 
been  put  to  the  test ;  this  glory  has  been 
upon  his  head:  that  of  a  man  whose 
courage  in  the  hour  of  danger  can  al- 
ways be  relied  upon. 

If  an  oppressed  people  feel  that  they 
are  standing  up  for  a  spiritual  as  well 
as  a  temporal  cause,  not  only  is  their  re- 
sistance more  heroic,  but  the  ordeal  is 
better  endured.  There  is  less  damage  to 
the  character  and  morale  of  a  race  thus 
[10] 


SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 

tried  in  a  furnace  of  persecution  seven 
times  heated. 

Their  religion  conserved  for  the  Irish 
the  soul  of  civilization;  and  so  long  as 
they  held  to  it,  their  tyrants  found  it  im- 
possible to  press  them  down  into  a  con- 
dition of  abject  slavery.  Had  the  op- 
pressors succeeded  in  stifling  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Irish,  the  consequences 
would  have  been  most  disastrous.  The 
character  of  the  nation  would  have  been 
lowered.  The  renegade  spirit  would 
run  into  all  other  convictions  and  rela- 
tionships. 

Their  morality  has  been  preserved,  as 
well  as  their  manliness,  by  fidelity  to 
faith.  Their  wonderful  power  of  re- 
cuperation amid  the  surroundings  of 
liberty  and  progress  is  due  to  the  latent 

[11] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

civilization  contained  in  their  virile 
Christianity. 

An  Irish  American  priest,  Father 
Shealy,  puts  the  case  this  way:  "The 
one  awful  failure  to  a  nation  is  to  fall 
from  her  ideals,  to  give  up  striving,  to 
sell  her  soul  to  power  and  avarice  or 
aught  that  serves  the  sordid  sway  of 
pride  and  passion.  That,  indeed,  is  fail- 
ure which  succeeds  at  the  price  of  virtue 
and  honor. 

"Ireland  might  have  been  rich  and 
favored.  She  might  have  merged  her 
identity  and  her  faith  in  an  alien  empire 
and  alien  worship.  But  she  fought  and 
died;  she  starved  and  agonized;  and  in 
defeat  she  has  conquered.  Her  spirit 
still  lives  on." 


[12] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 


II 

UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 

SUPPOSE  that  the  well-prepared 
mvasion  of  France  in  those  weeks 
following  August  1,  1914,  had  not  been 
turned  back  at  the  battle  of  the  Marne, 
and  that  the  blond  superman  of  the 
north  had  come  to  possess  and  perma- 
nently rule  over  the  fair  fields  of 
France. 

In  the  course  of  a  century  the  Ger- 
man schoolmaster  might  be  teaching 
Europe  that  this  great  conquest  was  the 
triumph  of  the  civilization  of  the  Elbe 
and  the  Vistula  over  the  disorganized 
civilization  of  the  Seine, — Teutonic  effi- 
[15] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

ciency  prevailing  as  a  question  of  su- 
perior Kultur  over  Gallic  individualism 
and  decadence. 

Let  the  centuries  roll  on,  and  how  the 
past  glories  of  the  conquered  fade  and 
are  obliterated  under  the  mastership  of 
those  who  are  making  history, — and 
writing  it!  "Where,  to-day,  are  the 
great  cities  of  antiquity?"  exclaimed  an 
Irish  orator, — "perished  so  utterly  that 
it  is  doubtful  whether  they  ever  ex- 
isted." A  thousand  years  hence.  Na- 
poleon might  be  a  legend,  Austerlitz  or 
Jena  smiled  at  as  myths,  and  the  salons 
of  Paris  and  the  art  galleries  of  Ver- 
sailles as  forgotten  as  "the  harp  that 
once  thro'  Tara's  halls  the  soul  of  music 
shed." 

How  easily  might  the  theory  come 
to  prevail  among  the  dominant  Ger- 
[16] 


UNDYIIVG  NATIONHOOD 

mans  of  A.  D.  3000  that  the  rebellious 
French,  reduced  economically  to  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  were 
totally  unfit  for  self-government ! 

This  is  the  situation  from  which  the 
Irish  have  been  emerging.  The  British 
middle  class,  who,  according  to  Mat- 
thew Arnold,  * 'exhibit  a  narrow  range 
of  intellectual  knowledge,  a  stunted 
sense  of  beauty,  and  a  low  standard  of 
manners,"  have  always  felt  divinely 
called  to  impose  their  will  as  a  benevo- 
lent despotism  upon  the  Irish. 

At  a  time  when  Edmund  Burke  was 
hailed  as  a  great  statesman,  when 
George  III.  had  publicly  thanked  him 
for  his  "Reflections  on  the  French  Rev- 
olution," and  that  book  was  lying  on  the 
table  of  every  great  house  in  England, 
Burke,  with  his  increased  prestige,  was 
[17] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

besought  by  an  Irish  friend  to  use  his 
opportunity  and  do  something  for  Ire- 
land ;  but  he  rephed  that  as  regards  Ire- 
land he  was  absolutely  without  in- 
fluence. They  would  let  him  help  rule 
England  and  rearrange  Europe,  but 
they  would  not  take  a  suggestion  from 
this  cleverest  of  Irishmen  as  to  Irish 
affairs.  That  epitomizes  the  reason- 
ableness of  English  doubt  of  Irish  fit- 
ness for  self-government. 

As  late  as  1825,  Sydney  Smith  de- 
clared that  "the  moment  the  very  name 
of  Ireland  is  mentioned,  the  English 
seem  to  bid  adieu  to  common  feeling, 
common  prudence,  and  common  sense, 
and  to  act  with  the  barbarity  of  tyrants 
and  the  fatuity  of  idiots." 

"It  is,"  said  Judge  Morris  (once  head 
of  the  Irish  bench),  "the  case  of  a  very 
[18] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 

unimaginative  people  attempting  to 
govern  a  very  imaginative  and  clever 
people,  and  you  see  the  result."  Eng- 
land finds  Ireland  intractable, — 

The  lovely  and  the  lonely  bride 

That  we  have  wedded,  but  have  never  won. 

Victory  is  not  always  an  essential  to 
glory,  otherwise  the  heroism  at  Ther- 
mopylae would  not  have  been  the  pride 
of  Greece  for  all  generations. 

The  Irish,  as  a  nation,  have  not  fared 
fortunately  in  the  jostle  of  times  and 
events.  Ireland  has  been  described  as 
"the  Niobe  of  nations," 

Childless    and    crownless    in    her    voiceless 
woe. 

But  there  must  be  stamina  in  a  race 
that,  banished  and  massacred,  hunted 
[19] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

and  famine-plagued,  has  kept  the  flag 
of  its  nationality  flying  through  so  many 
vicissitudes;  notwithstanding  which,  it 
still  has  the  vitality  of  a  new  life  about 
it: 

'Beauty's  ensign  yet  is  crimson  In  her  lips 

and  in  her  cheek, 
And    death's    pale    flag    is    not    advanced 

there. 

The  late  Governor  Robert  L.  Taylor, 
of  Tennessee,  after  a  survey  of  Ire- 
land's heroic  stmggle  for  nationality, 
has  this  appreciation: 

"If  I  were  a  sculptor  I  would  chisel 
in  marble  my  ideal  of  a  hero.  I  would 
make  it  the  figure  of  an  Irishman  sac- 
rificing his  hopes  and  his  life  on  the 
altar  of  his  country,  and  I  would  carve 
[20] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 

on  its  pedestal  the  name  of  Robert 
Emmet. 

"If  I  were  a  painter  I  would  make 
the  canvas  eloquent  with  the  deeds  of 
the  bravest  people  who  ever  lived,  whose 
proud  spirit  no  power  can  ever  conquer 
and  whose  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the 
hopes  of  free  government  no  tyrant  can 
ever  crush.  And  I  would  write  under 
the  picture  'Ireland.' 

"If  I  were  a  poet,  I  would  touch  the 
heart  of  humanity  with  the  mournful 
threnody  of  Ireland's  wrongs  and 
Erin's  woes.  I  would  weave  the  sham- 
rock and  the  rose  into  garlands  of  glory 
for  the  Emerald  Isle,  the  land  of  mar- 
tyrs and  memories,  the  cradle  of  heroes, 
the  nursery  of  liberty." 

A  great  American  commander  was 
[21] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

much  applauded  for  fighting  it  out  on 
one  line  "if  it  took  all  summer."  The 
Irish  have  backed  the  principle  of  Home 
Rule  through  forty  summers  of  hope 
and  winters  of  disappointment,  "never 
doubting  that  the  clouds  would  break." 
If  this  is  not  an  evidence  of  the  real 
moral  force  of  the  race,  where  is  there  a 
better  test?  IMany  things  happened  to 
turn  them  from  their  stern  chase;  but 
their  tenacity  of  purpose  never  wavered. 
Even  their  enemies  must  concede  them 
the  distinction  implied. 

The  Ulster  Irish  also  are  a  tenacious 
people.  They  come  of  Covenanter 
stock.  They  showed  it  at  the  siege  of 
Derry.  But  Ulster  tenacity  is  faced 
by  Irish  Nationalist  tenacity — older, 
stronger,  deeper,  more  patient,  and — ' 
undying. 

[22] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 


It  is  not  improbable  that  northeast 
Ulster  may  change  its  views  in  the  com- 
ing years.  There  are  many  broad  and 
patriotic  Irish  Protestants.  They  dom- 
inated the  situation  as  patriotic  Irish- 
men in  1782,  and  they  yielded  scores 
of  heroes  in  1798.  The  tenacity  of 
the  north-of-Ireland  Protestants  may 
change  its  base  and  display  itself  in  bet- 
ter policies. 

But  the  tenacity  of  the  Irish  Nation- 
alist will  never  let  go  of  its  cherished 
aim  and  purpose.  It  is  destined  to  be 
the  triumphant  tenacity — *'face  for- 
ward" for  all  time,  resolving, 

Never  to  look  behind  me  for  an  hour, 
To  wait  in  weakness  and  to  walk  in  power. 
But  always  fronting  onward  to  the  light. 
Always  and  always  facing  toward  the  right, 
[23] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

Robbed,     starved,    defeated,     fallen,    wide 

astray. 
On  with  what  strength  I  ha^e. 

John  Mitchel,  himself  an  Ulster  Pro- 
testant, wrote;  "The  passionate  aspi- 
ration of  Ireland  for  freedom  will  out- 
live the  British  Empire." 

Marshall  P.  Wilder,  famous  among 
New  Yorkers  as  an  after-dinner 
speaker,  often  repeated  an  Irishman's 
toast  to  an  English  friend:  "Here's  to 
you,  as  good  as  you  are;  and  here's  to 
me,  as  bad  as  I  am.  But  as  good  as  you 
are  and  as  bad  as  I  am,  I  am  as  good 
as  you  are  as  bad  as  I  am."  This  senti- 
ment may  be  applied  to  the  government 
of  Ireland.  Let  the  Irish  try  it  them- 
selves. Let  them  have  riotous  elections 
if  necessary.  Let  them  have  Kilkenny 
[24] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 

parliaments.  Let  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  use  a  shillalah  for  a  gavel.  Let 
the  honorable  member  from  Donny- 
brook  "hurl  the  foul  insinuations  of  the 
honorable  member  from  Drogheda  back 
into  the  throat  of  the  cowardly  de- 
famer." 

Even  so.  With  all  this  lack  of  de- 
corum, the  Irish  could  not  make  a  worse 
failure  of  the  government  of  Ireland 
than  have  the  English.  Even  in  the 
enlightened  nineteenth  century  the 
English  attempt  to  govern  Ireland  has 
been  a  record  of  coercion  and  famine, 
eviction  and  depopulation,  jury-pack- 
ing, suppression  of  public  meetings,  and 
the  jailing  of  Ireland's  best  patriots. 
No ;  even  a  Donnybrook  fair  would  rule 
Ireland  with  better  wisdom  and  better 
results. 

[25] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

In  the  dawning  of  a  better  England, 
the  Irishman  has  been  called  to  rule 
nearly  every  portion  of  the  British  Em- 
pire except  his  native  soil.  Speaking 
at  Quebec  in  1878,  Lord  Dufferin,  an 
Irishman,  then  Governor-General  of 
Canada,  genially  observed: 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  the  world  is 
best  administered  by  Irishmen.  Things 
never  went  better  with  us,  either  at 
home  or  abroad,  than  when  Lord  Pal- 
merston  ruled  Great  Britain,  Lord 
Mayo  governed  India,  Lord  Monck  di- 
rected the  destinies  of  Canada,  and  the 
Robinsons,  the  Kennedys,  the  Laffans, 
the  Callaghans,  the  Gores,  the  Hennes- 
sys  administered  the  affairs  of  our  Aus- 
tralian colonies  and  West  Indian  pos- 


sessions." 


[26] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 

So,  in  the  process  of  the  solution  of 
the  Irish  land  question,  the  final  and 
drastic  measure  of  relief  came  through 
the  constructive  talent  of  George 
Wyndham,  a  great-grandson  of  an 
Irish  rebel  of  1798.  Mr.  Wyndham's 
Land  Act  of  1903,  says  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett,  was  put  through  Parliament 
by  "the  masterly  tact,  temper  and  abil- 
ity" with  which  he  handled  the  situa- 
tion. 

There  is  a  story  of  the  father  of  Han- 
nibal, the  Carthaginian  general,  that  he 
took  his  son  into  one  of  the  temples  of 
the  African  city  and  induced  him  to 
swear  upon  the  altar  never  to  make 
peace  with  the  Roman  people,  but  to 
wage  incessant  warfare  against  them 
until  their  pride  should  be  humbled. 

History  tells  us  how  well  Hannibal 
[27] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

kept  his  promise.  He  laid  plans  for 
years.  Then  he  swept  the  Romans  out 
of  Spain.  He  crossed  the  Alps  and 
routed  one  Roman  army  after  another 
until  his  soldiers  were  in  sight  of  the 
walls  of  Rome.  Had  he  gone  right 
ahead  and  not  paused  before  attacking 
the  ancient  London,  he  might  have  con- 
quered effectually. 

Hannibal's  purpose  of  enmity  is 
cherished  by  every  descendant  of  the 
Irish  race  without  the  formula  of  an 
oath.  Everywhere  to  meddle  with  the 
designs  of  England ;  everywhere  to  beat 
down  her  power;  everywhere  to  nullify 
her  treaties  and  to  interfere  with  her 
friendships;  everywhere  to  injure  her 
commerce — such  is  the  instinctive  spirit 
of  the  race.  It  is  a  taste  for  world-wide 
mischief. 

[28] 


UNDYING  NATIONHOOD 

In  the  seat  of  peace  tumultuous  wars 
Shall  kin  with  kin,  and  kind  with  kind  con- 
found. 
Prevent  it,  resist  it,  let  it  not  be  so. 
Lest  child,  child's  children  cry  against  you, 
Woe !  — Shakespeare, 

Anglo-Saxons  may  talk  of  a  "com- 
mon Shakespeare,"  and  great  leaders 
may  speak  of  a  *'kin  beyond  the  sea," 
but  the  presence  of  an  element  running 
into  the  millions ;  following  the  English- 
man everywhere;  becoming  more  intel- 
ligent and  more  effective ;  more  wealthy 
and  more  astute;  holding  the  bal- 
ance of  power  in  English-speaking  leg- 
islatures, and  stealing  into  the  courts 
and  navies  of  great  nations,  cannot  be 
overlooked.  There  is  an  "irrepressible 
conflict."  There  must  be  a  final  settle- 
ment. 

[29] 


the  leaven  of 
democracy; 


Ill 

THE   LEAVEN   OF   DEMOCRACY 

EVERYBODY  recalls  "II  Bacio," 
a  famous  waltz  song  composed  by 
Arditi  in  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. He  tells  us  that  this  wistful 
melody  came  to  him  during  a  vacation 
among  the  hills  and  valleys  of  western 
Ireland. 

He  jotted  it  down  on  an  envelope 
and  later  finished  it  at  the  request  of 
a  great  soprano  whose  engagement  he 
was  managing  in  England  and  who 
wished  a  new  song.  The  song  was  an 
instant  success.  Arditi  did  not  grow 
[33] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

rich  out  of  it,  but  it  made  him  famous. 
The  music  pubhshers  reaped  the  har- 
vest. Flaxman,  who  bought  the  French 
rights,  made  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars out  of  the  winsome  song,  and  he 
pointed  to  a  fine  building  in  Paris  as  a 
monument  to  his  profits. 

How  many  other  melodies  have 
sounded  and  sobbed  through  the  iEo- 
lian  harp  of  the  Irish  hills  and  valleys, 
to  be  caught  up  and  made  world-pos- 
sessions, but  without  credit!  How 
many  fine  fancies,  how  many  germinal 
ideas,  how  many  moving  thoughts  have 
come  to  mankind  in  like  manner  from 
the  life  and  lore  of  the  same  people! 

Henry  George  got  the  germ  of  his 

"Progress     and    Poverty"     from    the 

writings  of  the  Irish  recluse,  J.  Fintan 

Lalor.    Karl  Marx  came  to  London  in 

[34] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

the  mid-60's  to  write  his  bible  of  So- 
cialism from  texts  found  in  the  works 
of  the  Irishman,  William  Thomson, — 
so  says  Dr.  Anton  Menger,  professor 
of  jurisprudence  in  the  University  of 
Vienna.  Neal  Dow,  the  father  of  pro- 
hibition, is  quoted  as  saying  that  he  got 
his  inspiration  from  Father  Mathew. 

And  so  we  may  conjecture  with 
more  or  less  plausibility  "adown  the 
ages":  Copernicus  may  have  studied 
that  old  ecclesiastical  controversy  of 
the  eighth  century,  wherein  the  Irish 
bishop,  Virgilius,  argued  the  sphericity 
of  the  earth ;  Columbus  may  have  been 
inspired  by  the  "Voyages  of  St.  Bren- 
dan," of  which  there  were  many  trans- 
lations in  his  time;  and  Dante,  as  a 
widely  read  man,  may  have  been  famil- 
iar with  the  legend  of  St.  Patrick's 
[35] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

Purgatory,  which  might  well  have  sug- 
gested the  * 'Inferno." 

A  brilliant  Irish-American,  Ignatius 
Donnelly,  has  complained  that  the 
greater  part  of  history  is  simply  "re- 
corded legends,"  while  the  rest  repre- 
sents merely  "the  passions  of  factions, 
the  hates  of  sects,  or  the  servility  and 
venality  of  historians."  In  our  age  we 
are  rewriting  history  in  a  more  instruc- 
tive vein. 

Some  very  practical  economic  topics 
are  illustrated  by  the  experience  of  Ire- 
land. The  question  of  protection  and 
free  trade  has  two  epochs  of  Irish  his- 
tory related  to  it — that  of  1782,  when 
the  Volunteers  inscribed  on  their  can- 
non, "Free  Trade  or — !"  and  that  of 
1846,  when  the  Irish  famine  compelled 
[36] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

Sir  Robert  Peel  to  give  up  the  time- 
honored  EngHsh  poHcy  of  protection. 
The  gravest  social  question  of  our 
time — the  land  question — is  studied  in 
the  Irish  agitation  of  the  past  forty 
years.  The  always  curious  topic  of 
emigration  is  examined  under  condi- 
tions close  at  hand  in  the  exodus  of 
three  or  four  million  people  from  Ire- 
land during  the  last  sixty  years.  The 
student  of  political  agitation  will  find 
a  picturesque  interest  in  the  monster 
meetings  organized  by  Daniel  O 'Cou- 
ncil, where  as  many  as  four  hundred 
thousand  people  assembled  and  dis- 
persed with  gravity  and  order;  and  the 
student  of  social  betterment,  a  like  im- 
pressive subject  in  the  crusade  of  Fa- 
ther Mathew,  who  in  a  few  years 
[37] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

pledged  two  millions  of  his  countrymen 
to  total  abstinence. 

We  do  not  assmne  to  argue  that  Irish 
history  has  exceptional  features  of  in- 
terest, although  this  may  well  be 
claimed.  What  seems  a  reasonable  po- 
sition to  take,  however,  is  to  assert  that 
this  study  enlightens  the  reader  respect- 
ing some  of  the  profoundest  topics  in 
the  world's  history,  and  that,  aside  from 
more  direct  considerations,  it  well  de- 
serves attention. 

The  more  direct  considerations  are 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  Irish  element 
constitutes  a  large  infusion  in  the  Amer- 
ican nation,  and  we  study  the  history 
of  the  American  people  best  when  we 
follow  them  back  to  their  ancestral 
homes. 

The  Irish  undoubtedly  have  a  reli- 
[38] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

gious  mission,  but  they  also  have  a  polit- 
ical mission.  If  in  one  direction  they 
are  the  modern  pioneers  of  Christianity, 
in  another  direction  they  are  the  reli- 
able auxiliaries  of  the  democratic 
movement. 

About  the  year  1680,  we  find  the  term 
*'Tory"  in  English  politics,  and  applied 
to  public  men  who  favored  leniency  to 
the  Catholics.  The  name  "Tory"  orig- 
inated in  Ireland;  it  was  applied  in  the 
sixteenth  century  to  a  kind  of  White- 
boy  or  Ribbonman  banditti  of  that  day. 

Could  the  spirit  of  Patrick  Sarsfield 
come  back  to-day,  it  would  surprise  him 
to  find  the  Irish,  once  the  allies  of  the 
Tories,  now  so  solidly  against  them. 
Or  could  Oliver  Cromwell  revisit  the 
glimpses  of  the  moon,  he  would  be 
equally  surprised  to  find  the  Irish  vot- 
[39] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

ing  with  the  English  party  which  traces 
its  ancestry  back  to  the  Roundheads  of 
the  Long  Parliament. 

The  explanation  is  that  the  Irish  race, 
originally  royalist  in  sympathy,  due  to 
their  clan  system  and  the  evil  star  of 
the  Stuarts,  have  been  driven  by  cir- 
cumstances into  the  great  democratic 
movement  of  modern  times. 

Edmund  Burke  was  a  Whig.  Whig 
leaders  like  Fox  and  Sheridan  were 
more  friendly  to  Ireland  and  Catholic 
emancipation  than  the  Tory  leaders. 
O'Connell,  on  entering  the  British  Par- 
liament, allied  himself  with  the  Whigs 
or  Liberals  under  the  Melbourne  min- 
istry (1836-41),  and  he  opposed  the 
succeeding  Tory  administration  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel.  He  found  the  Whigs 
more  disposed  to  do  justice  to  Ireland. 
[40] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

Lecky,  in  his  "History  of  England  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century"  (chapter 
viii.),  mentions  the  prediction  (made 
at  the  time  of  the  Union),  that  the 
Irish  members  would  range  themselves 
on  the  side  of  "the  powers  that  be"  and 
increase  the  influence  of  the  Crown; 
and  he  thus  proceeds: 

"It  need  scarcely  be  added  that  the 
influence  of  Irish  representation  has 
proved  the  exact  opposite  of  what  had 
been  predicted.  A  majority  of  Irish 
members  turned  the  balance  in  favor 
of  the  great  democratic  reform  bill  of 
1832;  and  from  that  day  there  has 
scarcely  been  a  democratic  measure 
which  they  have  not  powerfully  assisted. 
When,  indeed,  we  consider  the  votes 
they  have  given,  the  principles  they  have 
[41] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

been  the  means  of  introducing  into  Eng- 
lish legislation,  and  the  influence  they 
have  exercised  on  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, it  is  probably  not  too  much  to  say 
that  their  presence  in  the  British  Par- 
liament has  proved  the  most  powerful 
of  all  agents  in  accelerating  the  demo- 
cratic transformation  of  English  poli- 
tics." 

Most  of  the  great  Irish  relief  meas- 
ures of  the  last  fifty  years  were  brought 
in  by  Gladstone  and  his  Liberal  fol- 
lowers. 

The  Irish  are  a  clear-minded  people, 
and  they  see  that  democratic  measures 
like  the  extension  of  the  suffrage  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  Lords  strengthen 
them  as  a  force  in  British  politics,  and 
lead  to  the  gradual  improvement  of  their 
[42] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

industrial  and  political  status.  They 
are  also  a  logical  people,  and  therefore 
recognize  their  duty  to  support  liberal, 
democratic,  and  humanitarian  measures, 
wherever  and  for  whomsoever  these 
boons  are  invoked,  as  the  following  epi- 
sode will  illustrate  : 

Many  years  ago,  when  Negro  slavery 
existed  in  the  British  colonies  of  the 
West  Indies,  a  little  party  of  three  men 
in  the  British  Parliament  began  to  agi- 
tate, in  season  and  out  of  season,  for 
Negro  emancipation.  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell,  with  the  few  Irish  members  who 
supported  him,  threw  his  strength  to 
this  little  party  on  every  division.  There 
was  a  West  Indian  interest  pledged  to 
maintain  Negro  slavery,  and  this  inter- 
est counted  twenty-seven  votes  in  Par- 
liament. They  came  to  O'Connell  and 
[43] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

offered  to  throw  their  twenty-seven 
votes  to  him  on  every  Irish  question  if 
he  would  oppose  Negro  emancipation. 

"It  was,"  said  Wendell  Phillips,  "a 
terrible  temptation.  How  many  a  so- 
called  statesman  would  have  yielded! 
O'Connell  said:  ^Gentlemen,  God 
knows  I  speak  for  the  saddest  nation  the 
sun  ever  sees,  but  may  my  right  hand 
forget  its  cunning  and  my  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  to  serve  Ire- 
land, even  Ireland,  I  forget  the  Negro 
one  single  hour!' " 

There  spoke  the  consistent  lover  of 
liberty,  the  statesman  who  carried  good 
morals  into  politics;  for,  as  Edmund 
Burke  says,  "politics  are  morals  in  their 
larger  development."  It  is  too  costly 
a  price  to  pay  if  one  conviction  must 
be  debauched  in  order  that  another  con- 
[44] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

viction  may  prosper.  Need  we  wonder 
that  the  profoundest  of  English  poets, 
Coleridge,  was  moved  to  say,  having 
O'Connell  in  mind: 

"O  for  a  great  man — for  one  really 
great  man  who  could  feel  the  power 
and  weight  of  a  principle  and  unflinch- 
ingly put  it  into  action!  See  how  tri- 
umphant in  debate  and  action  O'Con- 
nell is!  Why?  Because  he  asserts  a 
broad  principle  and  acts  upon  it — ^rests 
all  his  weight  on  it  and  has  faith  in  it." 

The  high  ideals  of  the  great  Irish 
Liberator  have  been  cherished  by  his 
successors. 

"In  many  ways  I  greatly  admire  and 
sympathize  with  the  Irish  party.  They 
are  brilliant  parliamentarians.  Both  as 
orators  and  as  tacticians  they  are  supe- 

[45] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

rior,  far  superior,  to  any  other  group  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  Although  the 
majority  of  them  are  poor  men,  ...  no 
breath  of  corruption  has  ever  touched 
their  honor." 

So  wrote  Sydney  Brooks,  an  English 
journalist,  in  the  March,  1909,  "North 
American  Review,"  in  No.  X.  of  a  se- 
ries of  articles  entitled,  "The  New  Ire- 
land." These  articles  are  substantially 
anti-Home  Rule  and  anti-Nationalist, 
though  intermixed  with  many  judicious 
admissions. 

"But,"  somebody  will  ask,  "how  about 
the  Irish-American  politician  in  our 
American  cities?" 

Lincoln  Steffens,  whose  study  of  "the 
graft  evil"  has  made  him  a  national  au- 
thority on  the  subject,  telling  the  story 
[46] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

of    his    investigations    in    "McClure's 
Magazine,"  says: 

"When  I  set  out  on  my  travels,  an 
honest  New  Yorker  told  me  honestly 
that  I  would  find  that  the  Irish — the 
Catholic  Irish — ^were  at  the  bottom  of  it 
all,  everywhere. 

"The  first  city  I  went  to  was  St. 
Louis,  a  German  city.  The  next  was 
Minneapolis,  a  Scandinavian  city  with 
a  leadership  of  New  Englanders.  Then 
I  came  to  Pittsburgh — Scotch  Presby- 
terian— and  that  was  what  my  New 
England  friend  was.  'Ah,  but  they  are 
all  foreign  populations,'  I  heard.  The 
next  city  was  Philadelphia,  the  purest 
American  community  of  all,  and  this 
was  most  hopeless.  And  after  that  came 
Chicago  and  New  York,  both  mongrel- 
[47] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

bred,  but  the  one  a  triumph  of  reform, 
and  the  other  the  best  example  of  good 
government  that  I  had  seen.  The  *  for- 
eign element'  excuse  is  one  of  the  hypo- 
critical lies  that  save  us  from  the  clear 
sight  of  ourselves." 

Bryce,  in  his  "American  Common- 
wealth" (volume  II.,  page  241),  has  a 
paragraph  of  like  tenor: 

"The  immigrants,"  he  says,  "are  not 
so  largely  responsible  for  the  faults  of 
American  politics  as  the  stranger  might 
be  led,  by  the  language  of  many  Amer- 
icans, to  believe.  There  is  a  disposition 
on  the  part  of  Americans  to  use  them, 
and  especially  the  Irish,  much  as  the  cat 
is  used  in  the  kitchen  to  account  for 
the  disappearance  of  eatables.  The 
cities,  no  doubt,  suffered  from  the  immi- 
[48] 


LEAVEN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

grants — but   New   York  was   not   an 
Eden  before  the  Irish  came." 

When  it  comes  to  a  proper  study  of 
graft  in  its  entirety,  a  much  larger  rec- 
ord must  be  brought  into  evidence  than 
the  municipal  graft  record.  Take  the 
amount  of  graft  put  away  by  Tweedism 
in  New  York;  multiply  it  by  ten;  then 
add  the  amount  of  graft  to  the  discredit 
of  the  Philadelphia  ring,  and  multiply 
that  total  by  ten,  and  you  will  come  no- 
where near  the  total  amount  of  graft 
put  away  by  the  financial  magnates  of 
the  United  States  in  constructing  new 
lines  and  buying  and  selling  and  bond- 
ing small  roads  to  the  systems  they  con- 
trolled. And  these  big  graft  manipula- 
tors uniformly  have  names  that  are  de- 
cidedly not  Irish. 

[49] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 


IV 

THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

THE  Irish  are  gone  with  a  ven- 
geance," said  "The  London 
Times"  jubilantly  in  the  year  following 
the  Irish  famine.  "In  a  short  time  a 
Catholic  Celt  will  be  as  rare  on  the 
banks  of  the  Shannon  as  a  Red  Indian 
on  the  shores  of  Manhattan."  Never- 
theless, two  generations  later,  the  Celt 
is  still  numerous  on  the  banks  of  the 
Shannon  and  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames  also;  and  more  numerous  on 
the  shores  of  Manhattan  than  the  Red 
Indian  ever  was. 

Nor  does  he  forget  Ireland  wherever 
[53] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

he  goes.  He  has  indeed  "gone  with  a 
vengeance,"  but  in  a  sense  quite  differ- 
ent than  that  of  "The  London  Times." 
As  a  poet  (Thomas  D'Arcy  McGee)  of 
that  great  migration  wrote : 

Hail  to  our  Celtic  brethren,  wherever  they 
may  be. 

In  the   far  woods  of  Oregon,   or  o'er  the 
Atlantic  sea — 

Whether  they  guard  the  banner  of  St.  George 
in  Indian  vales, 

Or  spread  beneath  the  nightless  North  ex- 
perimental saQs — 
One  in  name  and  in  fame 
Are  the  sea-divided  Gaels. 

A  greeting  and  a  promise  unto  them  all  we 

send; 
Their  character  our  charter  is,  their  glory 

is  our  end ; 
Their  friend   shall  be  our   friend,  our  foe 

whoe'er  assails 

[54] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

The  past  or  future  honors  of  the  far-dis- 
persed Gaels : 
One  in  name  and  in  fame 
Are  the  sea-divided  Gaels. 

More  Irish  immigrants  came  to 
America  in  the  mid-third  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  (1847-80),  than  the 
total  population  of  the  colonies  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Revolution.  Nine- 
teenth century  Irish  immigration  ex- 
ceeded numerically  the  northern  migra- 
tions that  overturned  the  Roman  Em- 
pire. 

Irish  immigration,  coming,  as  it  did, 
almost  exclusively  to  the  northern 
States,  gave  the  North  its  preponder- 
ance in  Congress  and  broke  down  the 
sectional  equilibrium  upon  which  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  rested.  Know- 
Nothingism,  which  sought  to  shut  out 
[55] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

the  immigrant  or  prevent  his  naturaliza- 
tion, was  eagerly  welcomed  by  the 
South,  but  it  was  too  late. 

Draper  ("American  Civil  War,"  I, 
446)  puts  this  opinion  in  the  mouth  of 
a  slaveholder:  "The  mistake  with  us 
has  been  that  it  was  not  made  a  felony 
to  bring  in  an  Irishman  when  it  was 
made  piracy  to  bring  in  an  African." 
So  there  was  a  direct  relationship  be- 
tween the  Irish  famine  and  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation.  Except  for 
Irish  immigration,  the  American  Negro 
would  have  clanked  his  chains  for  a  gen- 
eration longer. 

No  immigrant  to  our  shores  has  been 
more  willing  to  forswear  allegiance  to 
foreign  kings  and  Kulturs  than  the 
Irish,  and  none  has  been  more  ready  to 
enter  upon  the  full  duties  of  his  Ameri- 
[56] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

can  citizenship.  He  has  never  shown 
himself  apathetic  or  indifferent  on  elec- 
tion day.  He  votes  early — and  no 
doubt,  if  it  were  legally  required,  he 
would  vote  often.  Nor  does  he  decline 
civic  responsibilities.  On  this  score 
there  is,  at  times,  complaint  from  people 
who  would  never  face  a  mob  or  fight 
a  fire,  that  there  are  too  many  Irish  in 
the  police  and  fire  departments.  Such 
is  also  the  case  if  you  will  examine  the 
army  and  navy  enlistments  when  the 
country  is  in  danger  and  it  is  necessary 
to  fill  up  the  ranks ;  but  there  is  no  com- 
plaint about  this. 

Many  years  ago,  John  Randolph  of 
Roanoke  said:  "I  have  seen  a  white 
crow  and  heard  of  black  swans,  but  an 
Irish  opponent  of  American  liberty  I 
never  either  saw  or  heard  of."  Irish- 
[57] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

Americans  have  never  produced  any 
Benedict  Arnolds  or  Aaron  Burrs. 
They  have  never  raised  the  red  flag 
above  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  They  have 
come  upon  the  platform  of  democracy 
with  both  feet  and  two  fists.  Their 
Americanism  is  heart-whole,  without  re- 
serve, jubilant,  riant,  and  scintillant. 

An  Irish  alderman  at  a  Forefathers' 
dinner  in  Boston  preached  the  duty  of 
patriotism:  "Every  man,"  he  said, — 
"every  man  should  love  his  native  land, 
whether  he  was  born  there  or  not." 

Later  immigrations  have  learned  this 
lesson  from  the  Irishman's  daughter 
teaching  in  the  public  schools.  In  New 
York  a  little  son  of  Italy,  twelve  years 
old,  came  to  his  teacher  and  asked  if 
he  could  not  have  his  name  changed. 
[58] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

"Why  do  you  want  to  change  your 
name?"  the  teacher  asked. 

"I  want  to  be  an  American.  I  live 
in  America  now." 

"What  American  name  would  you 
like?" 

"I  have  it  here,"  he  said,  handing  the 
teacher  a  scrap  of  paper  on  which  was 
written,  "Patrick  Dennis  McCarthy." 

This  seems  to  illustrate  Chesterton's 
remark :  "Rome  has  conquered  nations, 
but  Ireland  has  conquered  races."  The 
Irish  are  a  socially  expansive  people,  be- 
cause neighborly  by  nature,  and  always 
ready  to  sympathize  and  serve. 

"The  endowments  of  the  Celt  sup- 
plement those  of  the  Saxon,"  said  Gold- 
win  Smith.  "What  the  Saxon  lacks  in 
liveliness,  grace,  and  warmth,  the  Celt 
supplies.  The  two  races,  blended,  pro- 
[59] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

duce  a  great  and  gifted  nation."  The 
melting-pot  has  been  blending  this  im- 
migration for  two  centuries,  and  it  is 
not  improbable  that  a  third  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  to-day  have  Irish  blood  in 
their  veins. 

At  times  an  able  lawyer,  who  wins 
a  notable  case  by  a  brilliant  speech,  is 
found  crediting  it  to  *'the  dash  of  Irish" 
in  his  ancestry.  The  newspapers  speak 
of  the  same  fighting  blood  helping  a 
public  man  through  a  plucky  battle  for 
principle  or  preferment;  and  again  we 
hear  of  the  beautiful  American  actress 
"with  the  Irish  eyes,"  or  of  some  charm- 
ing woman  whose  wit  and  vivacity,  ac- 
cording to  the  society  reporter,  "come 
naturally  from  an  Irish  grandmother." 

In  like  manner,  Irvin  Cobb,  arguing 
that  the  Celtic  strain  is  strong  among 
[60] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

the  people  of  the  South,  says:  "The 
soft  speech  of  the  Southerner;  his  warm 
heart  and  his  hot  head,  his  readiness  to 
begin  a  fight  and  to  forgive  his  opponent 
afterwards ;  his  veneration  for  woman's 
chastity  and  his  love  for  the  ideals  of 
his  native  land — all  these  are  heritages 
of  his  Irish  ancestry,  transmitted  to  him 
through  two  generations." 

It  seems  invidious,  when  appraising 
Irish  ability,  to  distinguish  by  counties 
or  dates  of  settlement  what  is  after  all 
quite  evenly  distributed.  Especially  is 
this  so  with  respect  to  so  loosely  applied 
a  designation  as  "Scotch-Irishman" — if 
indeed  this  individual  may  not  be  a 
cousin  of  Sarah  Gamp's  friend,  Mrs. 
Harris — "which  there  ain't  no  such  per- 
son." Austin  O'Malley  is  somewhat 
justified  in  defining  "Scotch  Irish"  as  a 
[61] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

"term  used  in  American  obituary  no- 
tices to  convey  the  information  that  a 
Connaughtman  died  a  Freemason." 

Fifty  years  ago  it  was  a  matter  of 
regret  with  those  who  had  the  welfare  of 
the  Irish-American  element  at  heart, 
that  Irish  immigration  remained  so 
largely  in  the  cities.  We  have  since 
learned  to  qualify  this  regret  upon  these 
considerations:  (1)  Urban  settlement 
obeyed  an  economic  law  to  which  all  im- 
migrations submitted,  the  later  immi- 
grations even  in  a  larger  percentage 
than  the  Irish.  (2)  In  the  heyday  of 
Irish  immigration  (1845-60)  but  one- 
fifth  of  the  American  population  dwelt 
in  cities;  now  fully  half  our  population 
is  urban.  (3)  Cities  are  no  longer  the 
charnel-houses  of  population.  Under 
improved  sanitary  conditions,  cities  are 
[62] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

about  as  healthful  as  rural  districts; 
there  is  little  difference  in  the  birth  and 
death  rates.  (4)  Racial  segregation  is 
less  possible  and  Americanization  more 
feasible  under  the  condition  of  city  life. 
And  this,  of  course,  is  an  all-round  ben- 
efit. 

A  glance  at  the  place-names  will  show 
that  Irish  immigration  has  widely  dis- 
tributed itself  throughout  the  United 
States.  There  are  scores  of  American 
Dublins,  Waterfords  and  Belfasts;  at 
least  a  thousand  American  place-names 
begin  with  Mac  or  O ;  and,  in  all,  nearly 
seven  thousand  cities,  counties,  villages 
and  rivers  attest  by  their  names  that  the 
Celt  has  been  there  as  a  pioneer  and 
town-builder. 

William  Butler  Yeats,  the  Irish  poet, 
who  visited  this  country  some  years  ago, 
[63] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

declared  that  the  most  striking  thing  he 
saw  here  was  the  number  of  fat  Irish- 
men. They  are  often  fine-looking  fel- 
lows, and  we  can  see  nothing  unpatriotic 
in  a  people,  so  long  exposed  to  famine, 
finally  exhibiting  unmistakable  evi- 
dences of  being  well  nourished. 

"Englishmen,  Scotchmen,  Jews,  do 
well  in  Ireland — Irishmen  never,"  says 
George  Moore.  "Even  the  patriot  has 
to  leave  Ireland  to  get  a  hearing." 
There  is  some  truth  in  this  remark.  It 
is  not  best  even  for  an  Irish-American 
to  confine  himself  to  an  Irish- American 
community.  The  Irish  race  is  really  a 
leaven.  It  is  needed  to  lift  the  world. 
It  must  not  segregate  itself ;  lumped  and 
isolated,  it  misses  its  best  incentives. 
But,  of  course,  its  prosperity  when 
transplanted  is  also  largely  due  to  bet- 
[64] 


THE  SEA-DIYIDED  GAEL 

ter  civic  conditions  and  escape  from  op- 
pressive laws  and  institutions. 

Macaulay  illustrates  this  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage  referring  to  the  status 
of  the  Irish  who  migrated  to  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury: 

"There  were,  indeed,"  he  says,  "Irish 
Roman  Catholics  of  great  ability,  en- 
ergy, and  ambition;  but  they  were  to 
be  found  everywhere  except  in  Ireland 
— at  Versailles  and  St.  Ildefonso,  in  the 
armies  of  Frederic  and  in  the  armies 
of  Maria  Theresa.  One  exile  became 
a  Marshal  of  France.  Another  became 
Prime  Minister  of  Spain.  If  he  had 
stayed  in  his  native  land  he  would  have 
been  regarded  as  an  inferior  by  all  the 
ignorant  and  worthless  squireens  who 
[65] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

had  signed  the  declaration  against  tran- 
substantiation.  In  his  palace  at  Madrid 
he  had  the  pleasure  of  being  assiduously- 
courted  by  the  ambassadors  of  King 
George  II.,  and  of  bidding  defiance  in 
high  terms  to  the  ambassadors  of 
George  III.  Scattered  over  all  Europe 
were  to  be  found  brave  Irish  generals, 
dexterous  Irish  diplomats,  Irish  counts, 
Irish  barons,  Irish  Knights  of  St.  Louis 
and  St.  Leopold,  of  the  White  Eagle 
and  the  Golden  Fleece,  who  if  they  had 
remained  in  the  house  of  bondage  could 
not  have  been  ensigns  of  marching  regi- 
ments or  freemen  of  petty  corpora- 
tions." 

We  may,  in  this  connection,  recall  the 
story  of  an  Irish  schoolmaster,  who  was 
examining  a  class  in  geography.  "Now, 
[66] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

my  lad,"  he  said  to  a  clever  little  chap, 
"tell  us  what  latitude  is."  The  clever 
little  chap  smiled  and  winked.  "Lati- 
tude?" he  said.  "Oh,  sir,  there's  none 
o'  that  in  Ireland;  sure  the  English 
won't  allow  us  any,  sir." 

Their  national  vicissitudes  have  been 
parturitions  out  of  which  the  interna- 
tional importance  of  the  Irish  race  has 
developed.  It  is  probable  that  in  1900 
there  were  nearly  as  many  Irish-born 
persons,  and  twice  as  many  of  Irish  par- 
entage, living  outside  of  Ireland  as  with- 
in the  native  isle  of  the  race. 

So  the  whole  world  and  all  nineteenth 
century  history  are  dotted  with  distin- 
guished names  of  this  expatriate  people. 
O'Higgins  commands  the  Chilean  army, 
Plunkett  is  governor  of  New  Zealand, 
Duffy  is  an  Australian  premier,  O'Do- 
[67] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

herty  is  archbishop  of  Manila,  Hen- 
nessy  is  governor  of  Hong  Kong, 
O'Donnell  is  premier  of  Spain,  Taafe 
is  premier  of  Austria,  MacMahon  is 
president  of  the  French  Republic, 
O'Connor  is  British  ambassador  to  Tur- 
key, Lord  Russell  of  Killowen  is  chief 
justice  of  England,  Fitzpatrick  is  chief 
justice  of  Canada,  Walsh  is  governor 
of  Massachusetts,  Glynn  is  governor  of 
New  York,  Sheridan  is  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  American  army,  and  Irish 
grandsires  have  furnished  five  presi- 
dents of  the  United  States. 

An  American  bishop  has  written  a 
book  on  the  "Religious  Mission  of  the 
Irish  Race."  The  Irish  have  done  more 
to  spread  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  last 
hundred  years  than  all  its  missionary 
forces  in  three  hundred  years.  They 
[68] 


THE  SEA-DIVIDED  GAEL 

have  built  a  thousand  churches  in  the 
great  South  Sea  continent  of  Australia. 
They  have  thrown  a  million  of  their 
race  into  England  to  begin  its  recon- 
quest  to  the  faith.  They  have  made 
the  Catholic  Church  numerically  by  far 
the  largest  and  most  influential  Chris- 
tian denomination  in  the  United  States. 
While  there  are  to-day  twenty-five 
Catholic  bishops  in  Ireland,  there  are 
more  than  a  hundred  Catholic  bishops 
with  Irish  names  in  other  parts  of  the 
world. 

St.  Patrick's  Day  is,  in  our  time,  the 
most  widely  celebrated  of  national  an- 
niversaries. The  salvo  with  which  it 
opens  in  Dublin  is  caught  up  in  Paris 
by  descendants  of  the  Irish  Brigade, 
echoed  by  students  of  the  Irish  College 
in  Rome  and  by  bands  of  Irish  soldiers 
[69] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

in  Cairo;  Bombay  is  a-wearing  of  the 
green,  Melbourne  is  in  gala  attire,  San 
Francisco  is  in  mass  meeting  assembled, 
and  a  hundred  other  cities  bear  along 
the  chorus  to  New  York  and  Boston. 

One  may  adapt  Webster's  famous 
passage  to  the  progress  of  this  Irish 
feast  day — it  follows  the  sun,  and  keeps 
company  with  the  hours,  until  the  whole 
world  is  circled  around  with  the  min- 
strel strains  of  Ireland. 


[70] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


y 

.WIT  AND  GRIT 

npHAT  the  Irish,  with  their  tradi- 
-*-  tions  of  learning,  are  an  intellec- 
tual people,  that  they  are  unswerving  in 
their  faith  and  undying  in  their  national 
spirit,  are  matters  sufficiently  recalled 
in  the  foregoing  paragraphs.  It  ap- 
pears, too,  that  they  are  enlisted  as 
avant-couriers  and  leaders  in  the  great 
democratic  movement  of  our  age  and 
that  their  history  touches  some  of  the 
interesting  problems  of  modern  prog- 
ress. Furthermore,  the  destiny  of  these 
people  has  brought  them  to  wield  an  in- 
ternational influence.  These  are  among 
[73] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

the  larger  counts  in  the  ease  which  may 
be  pressed  in  the  forum  of  the  world's 
opinion  in  behalf  of  the  Irish. 

There  are  other  merits  that  will  be 
conceded  without  argument.  Irish 
bravery,  Irish  music  and  Irish  wit,  for 
instance,  are  universally  celebrated. 
We  need  not,  therefore,  pause  long 
upon  these  attributes. 

It  will  be  sufficient,  as  to  the  first,  to 
quote  what  the  correspondent  of  the 
London  "Times,"  who  was  an  eye-wit- 
ness, wrote  of  the  charge  of  Meagher's 
Irish  Brigade  at  the  Battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg : 

"Never  at  Fontenoy,  at  Albuera,  or 
at  Waterloo  was  more  undaunted  cour- 
age displayed  by  the  sons  of  Erin  than 
during  those  six  frantic  dashes  which 
[74] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


they  directed  against  the  almost  impreg- 
nable position  of  their  foe.  .  .  .  That 
any  mortal  man  could  have  carried  the 
position,  defended  as  it  was,  it  seems 
idle  to  believe.  But  the  bodies  which 
lie  in  dense  masses  within  forty  yards 
of  the  muzzles  of  Colonel  .Walton's  guns 
are  the  best  evidences  what  manner  of 
men  they  were  who  pressed  on  to  death 
with  the  dauntlessness  of  a  race  which 
has  gained  glory  on  a  thousand  bat- 
tle-fields and  never  more  richly  de- 
served it  than  at  the  foot  of  Marye's 
Heights,  December  13,  1862." 

The  flags  of  some  nations  bear  the 
figure  of  a  cross  or  a  crown,  a  sword,  a 
scepter  or  a  star.  The  Irish  is  the  only 
flag  that  enthrones  a  musical  instru- 
ment. Dante  is  quoted  (by  Galilei)  as 
[75] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

saying  that  Ireland  gave  Italy  the 
harp;  and  the  harp,  of  course,  is  the 
mother  of  the  pianoforte.  Mason,  a 
musical  authority,  asserts  that  "it  is  a 
matter  of  certitude  that  Ireland  gave 
Germany  her  first  lessons  in  musical 
art."  Italy  and  Germany,  the  leaders 
in  modern  music,  may  have  sat  at  the 
feet  of  the  old  Irish  bards.  It  is  not 
unfitting:  the  Brehons  and  the  bards, 
the  lawgivers  and  the  ballad-makers, 
were  the  virtual  rulers  of  ancient  Ire- 
land. 

Just  as  many  of  the  marble  palaces 
of  Renaissance  Rome  were  builded  out 
of  stone  taken  from  the  ruins  of  the 
Coliseum,  so  many  of  the  ballads  of  the 
modern  world  were  gathered  from  the 
rich  and  generous  store  of  Irish  folk 
songs.  "Robin  Adair"  has  been  traced 
[76] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


to  the  older  Irish  "Aileen  Aroon"  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  Burns'  inimit- 
able words  are  often  set  to  Irish  bardic 
airs.  Our  "Yankee  Doodle"  adopts  the 
tune  of  "All  the  Way  to  Galway"  and 
ever  and  anon  popular  songs  of  the  day 
get  their  lilt  from  the  Irish,  as  in  the 
case  of  "Sweet  Marie"  and  "Baby 
Mine,"  which  sing  again  with  little  al- 
teration the  ballad  of  the  Shan  van 
Voght.  No  wonder  Stephen  Foster, 
our  most  famous  song  writer,  who  im- 
mortalized himself  in  "My  Old  Ken- 
tucky Home,"  "Nelly  Bly,"  "Massa's 
in  the  Cold,  Cold  Ground,"  etc.,  was  of 
Irish  parentage. 

A    whole    literature    of    music    has 

grown  up  around  Moore's  "Last  Rose 

of  Summer."     Mendelssohn  put  it  in 

his  "Fantasia,"  Flotow  introduces  it  in 

[77] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

his  **Marta,"  and  even  Beethoven  has  a 
setting  of  it.  How  often  Patti  won  an 
ovation  with  this  her  favorite  ballad! 

All  the  armies  of  the  world  have 
swung  forward  to  the  rhythm  of  "Gar- 
ryowen" — "the  finest  marching  tune  in 
the  world,"  according  to  Col.  Roosevelt. 

We  are  apt  to  forget  that  "Maritana" 
and  other  popular  operas  are  by  Irish 
composers,  although  Balfe,  the  author 
of  "The  Bohemian  Girl,"  and  Sullivan, 
of  comic  opera  fame,  are  better  identi- 
fied. Signor  Foli,  the  sweet  singer, 
needed  only  slightly  to  Italianize  his 
Irish  name,  but  Victor  Herbert,  Amer- 
ica's favorite  visiter  of  light  operas,  like 
Saint-Gaudens,  the  sculptor,  is  not  read- 
ily supposed  to  be  of  Irish  birth.  Amer- 
ican audiences  have  enjoyed  no  better 
voices  than  those  of  Plunket  Green  and 
[78] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


John  McCormack,  no  finer  organ  rendi- 
tions than  those  of  Dudley  Buck  and 
Brendan  Rogers ;  and  Patrick  Sarsfield 
Gilmore's  magnificent  band  is  the  mem- 
ory of  a  generation. 

It  seems  to  be  agreed  that  the  old 
Gaels  were  a  serious-minded  race ;  even 
their  minstrelsy  was  plaintive.  That  the 
modern  Irish  are  a  witty  people  would 
seem  to  bear  out  the  theory  of  Burton's 
"Anatomy"  that  melancholy  is  the 
mother  of  wit.  The  Irish  have  learned 
to  be  cheerful  through  tribulation. 
Their  optimism  is  born  of  their  sorrows. 
Otherwise  their  wit  would  be  "dour" 
like  that  of  the  Scotch.  It  is  best  ex- 
hibited in  the  satire  of  Swift,  the  comedy 
of  Sheridan,  the  repartee  of  Curran,  the 
epigram  of  George  Bernard  Shaw,  and 
the  drollery  of  "Mr.  Dooley." 
[79] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

The  pat  answer  which  has  been  de- 
fined as  "an  Irish  come-back"  is  more 
typical  of  Irish  wit  than  the  bull.  Bulls, 
which  are  common  to  the  humor  of  all 
lands,  usually  indicate  slow  comprehen- 
sion or  lax  thinking.  But  the  Irish  bull 
is  often  an  instance  of  thought  over- 
leaping itself,  a  flash  of  perspicacity. 

An  Irish  M.P.  once  set  the  English 
press  laughing  by  his  picture  of  the  des- 
olation of  a  certain  district  in  misgov- 
erned Ireland.  He  said  there  was  "no 
living  creature  on  it  except  the  sea  gulls 
that  flew  over  it."  The  picture  of  a 
deserted  farm  was  in  his  mind,  and  the 
sea  gulls  flying  landward  from  an  ap- 
proaching storm  heightened  the  sense 
of  desolation.  He  was  really  an  im- 
pressionist, too  far  in  advance  of  his 
audience  in  over-vaulting  thought. 
[80] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


When  a  shrewd  doctor  says  that 
"warm  stockings  are  the  best  chest  pro- 
tectors," we  recognize  a  forcible  and  pic- 
turesque statement ;  when  Napoleon  de- 
clared that  "most  people  dig  their 
graves  with  their  teeth,"  we  see  a 
pointed  truth.  But  when  a  Kerry  doc- 
tor remarks  dryly  that  "people  are 
dying  this  winter  that  never  died  be- 
fore," we  see  a  merry  Irish  "bull."  The 
statement,  properly  interpreted,  is  that 
people  who  withstood  all  former  trying 
spells  of  cold  weather  are  succumbing 
to  this  spell,  begor!  The  Kerry  man 
has  stated  the  matter  with  piquancy.  A 
witty  Dublin  lawyer  remarks:  "Eng- 
lishmen also  make  bulls;  but  the  Irish 
bull  is  always  pregnant." 

Blarney  is  one  of  the  best  native  prod- 
ucts of  the  Emerald  Isle,  and  there  is 
[81] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

no  tariff  on  it.  Irish  immigration  has 
brought  it  over  duty  free,  to  add  to  the 
gayety  of  the  nation.  Recently  on  a 
crowded  street  car  in  Chicago,  an  Irish- 
man gave  up  his  seat  to  a  lady.  She 
was  Irish,  too,  and  did  not  neglect  to 
thank  him.  "Thank  you  kindly,"  said 
she.  "You're  a  jewel."  "No,  indeed," 
said  he,  "  'tis  a  jeweler  I  am — I  set  jew- 
els." 

Blarney  is  the  art  of  implying  a  com- 
pliment with  such  delicacy  and  wit  that  \ 
the  lady  will  not  feel  embarrassed.  A 
gallant  Irish  colonel  sat  next  to  a  charm- 
ing suffragette  at  a  dinner  party.  She 
overwhelmed  him  with  her  conversation, 
but  at  last  checking  herself,  she  said: 
"I  have  talked  so  much,  you  must  think 
I  am  in  love  with  the  sound  of  my  own 
voice."  "Well,  now,  ma'am,"  said  the 
[82] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


gallant  colonel,  "I  knew  you  liked  mu- 
sic." 

Students  of  sociology  find  a  test  of 
the  degree  of  civilization  in  the  esteem 
and  respect  shown  woman.  That  is  an 
ideal  state  where  innocence  may  dwell 
unscathed  and  purity  go  about  without 
guardianship.  An  incident  related  in 
Warner's  "History  of  Ireland"  is  thus 
rendered  in  one  of  Moore's  Melodies : 

Rich  and  rare  were  the  gems  she  wore, 
And  a  bright  gold  ring  on  her  wand  she 

bore; 
But  oh !  her  beauty  was  far  beyond 
Her  sparkling  gems  or  snow-white  wand. 

"Lady !  dost  thou  not  fear  to  stray 
So  lone  and  lovely  through  this  bleak  way  ? 
Are  Erin's  sons  so  good  or  so  cold 
As  not  to  be  tempted  by  woman  or  gold?" 
[83] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

"Sir  Knight !  I  feel  not  the  least  alarm, 
No  son  of  Erin  will  offer  me  harm — 
For  though  they  love  women  and  golden 

store. 
Sir   Knight!   they   love  honor   and  virtue 


A  chivalrous  respect  for  women  is  a 
generally  admitted  virtue  of  the  Irish- 
man everywhere.  "The  Irish  peasant  is 
a  natural  gentleman,"  said  the  late 
George  W.  Steevens  (a  Londoner  who 
came  to  Ireland  as  the  correspondent  of 
a  Tory  newspaper).  But  why  not,  in 
a  paradise  of  fair  women,  argues  Mr. 
Steevens  (in  "Things  Seen"): 

"The  only  thing  more  beautiful  than 
the  Irish  land  is  the  Irish  women;  even 
\  when  they  are  old  .  .  .  the  grace  and 
the  wonderful  eyes  and  the  courteous, 
modest,  liquid  speech  compel  the  hom- 
age you  would  not  pay  to  diamonds." 
[84] 


X 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


Where  women  are  thus  fair  and  men 
chivalrous,  we  have  a  nation  richly 
blessed  in  faithful  wives  and  true  hus- 
bands, good  sons  and  loving  daughters. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  anything  more 
tender  and  endearing  has  ever  been 
written  to  the  memory  of  a  father,  than 
the  following  poem  by  Katherine  Ty- 
nan, which  forms  a  prelude  to  her 
"Twenty-five  Years'  Reminiscences." 
Here  the  Irish  daughter's  heart-love 
goes  forth  to  her  comrade  father,  her 
remembrance  of  him  fixed  in  the  setting 
of  the  grey  hills  and  green  valleys  of  the 
Irish  home-land. 

You  were  a  part  of  the  green  country, 
Of  the  grey  hills  and  the  quiet  places. 
They  are  not  the  same,  the  fields  and  the 
mountains, 
Without  the  lost  and  beloved  faces. 
And  you  were  a  part  of  the  sweet  country. 
[85] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

There's  a  road  that  winds  by  the  foot  of 

the  mountains 
Where  I  run  in  my  dreams  and  you  come 

to  meet  me, 
With  your  blue  eyes  and  your  cheeks'  old 

roses, 
The  old  fond  smile  that  was  quick  to  greet 

me. 
They  are  not  the  same,  the  fields  and  the 

mountains. 

There  is  something  lost,  there  is  something 
lonely, 
The  birds   are   singing,  the  streams   are 
calling. 
The   sun's   the   same  and  the  wind  in  the 
meadows, 
But    o'er   your   grave    are   the    shadows 
falling, 
The  soul  is  missing,  and  all  is  lonely. 

It  is  what  they  said:  you  were  part  of  the 
country. 
You  were  never  afraid  of  the  wind  and 
weather, 

[86] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


I  can  hear  in  dreams  the  feet  of  your  pony, 

You  and  your  pony  coming  together. 
You  will  drive  no  more  through  the  pleasant 
country. 

You  were  a  part  of  the  fields  and  mountains, 

Everyone  knew  you,  everyone  loved  you, 

All  the  world  was  your  friend  and  neighbour, 

The  women  smiled  and  the  men  approved 

you. 

They  are  not  the  same,  the  fields  and  the 

mountains. 

I  sigh  no  more  for  the  pleasant  places, 
The  longer  I've  lost  you  the  more  I  miss 
you. 

My  heart  seeks  you  in  dreams  and  shadows. 
In  dreams  I  find  you,  in  dreams  I  kiss  you. 

And  wake,  alas !  to  the  lonely  places. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  once  said: 

"If  Ireland  were  a  volcanic  island  and 

should  sink  in  the  sea  some  night,  the 

world  would  be  bereft  of  more  than  half 

[87] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

its  poetic  and  imaginative  people."  The 
Irish  have  "as  fair  and  bounteous  a  har- 
vest of  myth  and  romance  as  ever 
flourished  among  any  race,"  and  of  this 
Shakespeare  in  his  * 'Midsummer 
Night's  Dream"  and  Spenser  in  his 
"Faerie  Queene"  bear  testimony. 

Oscar  Wilde  said  of  his  countrymen: 
"We  are  the  greatest  talkers  since 
the  Greeks."  Such  expressions  as 
"He's  a  very  conversable  person,"  "You 
wouldn't  be  tired  listening  to  him,"  are 
caught  up  from  the  mouths  of  the  peas- 
ants. Michael  Miskell  refuses  a  proffer 
of  tobacco  and  says:  "All  I  am  crav- 
ing for  is  the  talk."  Lady  Gregory  de- 
clares she  was  often  proud,  when  at 
Westminster,  to  see  the  House  fill  up 
when  an  Irish  IM.P.  rose  to  talk. 
[88] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


But  has  the  race  the  every-day  vir- 
tues, the  staying  qualities  that  win  the 
victories  of  peace?  In  this  connection 
some  one  has  characterized  the  Celtic 
state  of  mind  as  a  "vehement  reaction 
against  the  despotism  of  fact."  But 
this  is  not  necessarily  futility  or  incon- 
sequence ;  often  it  is  the  temper  that  gets 
the  world  out  of  ruts.  Such  was  the 
state  of  mind  of  Napoleon  when  he  said, 
"There  shall  be  no  Alps";  and  of  Co- 
lumbus, when  he  ordered  his  crew  to 
"Sail  on!  Sail  on!"  though 

Before  him  not  the  ghost  of  shores — 
Before  him  only  shoreless  seas. 

In  our  generation  we  speak  much 
about  efficiency.     When  America,   in 
1898,  declared  war  against  Spain,  a  red- 
headed Irish- American  named  Rowan 
[89] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

was  asked  to  deliver  a  letter  to  Garcia, 
the  rebel  Cuban  leader,  then  roving 
somewhere  in  the  interior  of  the  island. 
In  four  days  Rowan  landed  in  Cuba, 
got  through  the  Spanish  lines,  plunged 
into  the  jungle  to  find  the  elusive  rebel 
leader,  and  in  three  weeks  came  out  at 
the  other  end  of  the  island,  having  suc- 
cessfully "carried  the  message  to  Gar- 
cia." He  did  not  ask  where  he  should 
find  Garcia,  or  how  he  should  get  to 
him,  or  what  was  in  the  letter.  He  just 
went  and  did  the  business.  Rowan  was 
of  the  type  of  efficient  men  that  all  big 
enterprises  are  looking  for — men  who 
* 'deliver  the  goods." 

riannagan,  a  merchandise  broker  in 

a  western  city,  who  retired  some  years 

ago  with  a  comfortable  fortune,  likes  to 

recall  that  his  books  would  show  deal- 

[90] 


WIT  AND  GRIT 


ings  with  a  wide  variety  of  customers, 
including  the  Cohens  and  the  MacPher- 
sons.  And  he  has  some  satisfaction  in 
citing  his  own  case  as  a  pretty  fair  test 
of  trading  efficiency:  An  Irishman  who 
could  buy  merchandise  from  a  Jew  and 
sell  it  to  a  Scotchman  at  a  profit. . 

"Pat's  pick  built  our  railroads;  his 
brain  now  directs  what  his  brawn  pro- 
duced." James  J.  Hill,  son  of  an  Irish- 
Canadian  farmer,  came  to  the  United 
States  to  develop  a  great  railway  sys- 
tem in  the  West,  and  Thomas  Shaugh- 
nessy  (now  Lord  Shaughnessy),  an 
Irish-American,  dropped  a  petty  polit- 
ical position  in  an  American  city  to  be- 
come a  financial  and  industrial  magnate 
in  Canada.  How  many  such  instances 
in  American  industrial  history!  The 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,  em- 
[91] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

ploying  270,000  men  and  capitalized  at 
a  billion,  is  the  largest  industrial  organ- 
ization in  the  world,  and  at  its  head  as 
president  and  general  manager  is  an 
Irish-American,  James  Farrell,  who 
started  in  the  mills  as  a  laborer. 

These  men  were  not  mere  millionaires 
or  adepts  in  high  finance;  they  were  pio- 
neers of  enterprise,  captains  of  industry 
and  builders  of  empire, — ^men  whose 
character  and  ability  win  respect  quite 
apart  from  their  money,  their  success, 
or  their  position. 


[92] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


VI 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


rriHE  Irish,  of  course,  have  the  de- 
-*•  f  ects  of  their  qualities, — and  other 
defects  besides.  All  of  which,  however, 
lie  close  to  the  surface.  These  faults 
we  are  not  celebrating  in  this  presenta- 
tion. We  are  guided  by  the  policy  of 
the  French,  who  in  their  art  galleries, 
in  the  great  halls  devoted  to  battle 
scenes,  show  us  Marengo  and  Jena  and 
Austerlitz,  but  no  pictures  of  Waterloo. 
French  defeats  are  not  commemorated 
by  the  French. 

In  a  treatise  on  "Prejudice,"  one  of 
the  governing  laws  of  that  unjust  atti- 
[95] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

tude  of  mind  might  be  outlined  as  hav- 
ing special  reference  to  minorities  and 
so-called  smaller  peoples. 

Pursuant  to  this  law,  there  is,  in  dis- 
paragement, a  constant  disposition  to 
reason  from  the  particular  to  the  gen- 
eral, to  establish  a  universal  conclusion 
out  of  a  few  more  or  less  isolated  preju- 
dicial facts.  Prejudice,  being  by  nature 
cowardly,  will  not  so  conclude  as  to  a 
nationality  strong  and  dominant  for  the 
moment — like,  say,  the  British  or  the 
German;  but  it  will  be  very  ready  to 
deal  its  summary  injustice  to  the  Irish, 
the  Bohemians,  or  the  Jews, 

So  minorities,  suffering  from  such  dis- 
paragement, need  for  their  own  protec- 
tion to  welcome  praises  and  eulogiums, 
to  celebrate  their  victories,  and  to  sing 
their  patriotic  anthems. 
[96] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


* 'Nations,  like  individuals,  derive  sup- 
port and  strength  from  the  feeling  that 
they  belong  to  an  illustrious  race,  that 
they  are  the  heirs  of  their  greatness 
and  ought  to  be  the  perpetuators  of 
their  glory." 

Even  some  Irishmen  have,  uncon- 
sciously, imbibed  the  Saxon  contempt 
for  Irish  ways  and  Irish  points  of  view. 
Austin  O'Malley  has  this  circumstance 
in  mind  when  he  wittily  remarks :  "God 
is  good  to  the  Irish,  but  no  one  else  is; 
not  even  the  Irish"  ("Keystones  of 
Thought,"  p.  188).  The  finer  values  in 
Irish  character  and  Celtic  intellect  have 
been  misprized.  Racial  pride  must  re- 
assert its  inheritance. 

Americans  ought  to  know  something 
of  English  capacity  for  disparagement. 
English  critics  and  travellers,  from  Syd- 
[97] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

ney  Smith  to  Mrs.  Trollope  and  Charles 
Dickens,  with  singular  unanimity,  at 
least  down  to  the  end  of  our  Civil  War, 
have  found  fault  with  our  institutions 
and  our  manners,  our  tendencies  and  our 
twang,  our  politics  and  our  personal  ap- 
pearance, leaving  us  hardly  a  merit  to 
stand  upon. 

The  English  talent  for  disparagement 
fairly  exceeds  itself  when  it  undertakes 
the  task  of  explaining  British  misrule 
of  Ireland  by  blaming  it  all  upon  the 
character  and  disposition  and  what-not- 
else  of  the  Irish.  As  for  instance :  "The 
Irishman,"  says  the  English  historian 
Froude,  "is  a  chronic  rebel."  Upon 
which  Horace  Greeley  remarks,  "A 
rebel  is  a  man  with  sense  enough  to 
know  when  he  is  oppressed."  That  has 
been  common  sense  in  Ireland. 
[98] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


When  Ireland  was  a  nation  her  ideals 
of  expansion  were  intellectual  and 
moral,  not  military  or  commercial.  She 
did  not  bring  Christianity  to  France  and 
Germany  by  conquest,  nor  civilization 
by  the  mailed  fist. 

We  have  wronged  no  race,  we  have  robbed 

no  land. 
We  have  never  oppressed  the  weak. 
And  this,  in  the  face  of  Heaven,  is  the  nobler 

thing  to  speak, 

says  John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

The  Irish  invasion  of  Europe  was  an 
invasion  of  teachers  and  missionaries. 
They  stood  for  the  things  of  the  soul 
and  their  distinction  was  spiritual-mind- 
edness.  This  devotion  to  idealism  goes 
everywhere  with  their  wanderings  in  the 
modern  world.  The  Irish  element  is 
[99] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

not  only  an  evangelizer,  but  it  is  every- 
where in  the  forward  line  for  civil  lib- 
erty and  social  and  economic  equality. 

Back  in  the  thirteenth  century,  one  of 
the  great  scholars  of  that  age  was 
crowned  as  "the  Subtle  Doctor."  Duns 
Scotus,  whose  Celticism  is  undoubted, 
here  exhibited  a  characteristic  of  the  ra- 
cial intellect.  Sometimes  touched  with 
emotion,  it  is  more  apt  to  be  inspired  by 
imagination  and  mysticism, — the  crav- 
ing for  the  deeper  insight  and  the  vision 
beyond  the  mist.  The  Irish  mind,  nev- 
ertheless, delights  in  reasoning  and  crit- 
icism ;  it  is  quick,  sharp,  and  active,  keen 
in  analysis  and  rapid  and  ready  in  com- 
bining and  correlating. 

The  dominant  note  in  Celtic  litera- 
ture, according  to  Matthew  Arnold,  is 
sentiment.  The  Irish  temperament  is 
[100] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


poetic.  It  looks  for  abiding  good.  It 
craves  the  love  that  does  not  alteration 
find.  It  seeks  the  eternal  verities — as 
in  the  old  Irish  song  rendered  to  us  by 
Gerald  Griffin: 

Castles  are  sacked  in  war, 
Chieftains  are  scattered  far; 
Truth  is  a  fixed  star, 
Eileen  Aroon. 

When  Moore  wrote  "Erin,  the  tear 
and  the  smile  in  thine  eyes,"  he  compre- 
hended the  eternal  dualism  of  the  Irish 
temperament.  We  understand  men  and 
we  understand  races  best  when  we  un- 
derstand their  moods.  Here  is  a  little 
poem  from  the  pen  of  Theodosia  Garri- 
son (in  *'McClure's  Magazine")  which 
is  a  flashlight  into  the  depths  of  the 
Irish  heart: 

[101] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

Katie  had  the  grand  eyes,  and  Delia  had  a 
way  with  her, 
And  Mary  had  the  saint's  face,  and  Mag- 
gie's waist  was  neat. 
But  Sheila  had  the  merry  heart  that  traveled 
all  the  day  with  her. 
That  put  the  laughing  on  her  lips  and 
dancing  in  her  feet. 

I've  met  with  martyrs  in  my  time,  and  faith, 
they  make  the  best  of  it, 
But  'tis  the  uncomplaining  ones  that  wear 
a  sorrow  long. 
'Twas  Sheila  had  the  better  way,  and  that's 
to  make  a  jest  of  it. 
To  call  her  trouble  out  to  dance  and  step 
it  with  a  song. 

Eh!  but   Sheila  had  the  laugh  the  like  of 
drink  to  weary  ones 
(I've  never  heard  the  beat  of  it,  for  all  I've 
wandered  wide). 
And  out  of  all  the  girls  I  know — the  tender 
ones,  the  dreary  ones — 
[102] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


'Twas  only  Sheila  of  the  laugh  that  broke 
her  heart  and  died! 

Kate  Douglas  Wiggin,  in  a  good- 
humored  book  of  Irish  travel,  gives  us 
an  inn-keeper's  leisurely  philosophy: 

"At  Brodigan's  all  the  clocks  are  from 
ten  to  twenty  minutes  fast  or  slow. 

"  *How  do  you  catch  trains?'  I  asked 
Mr.  Brodigan. 

"  'Sure,  that's  not  an  every-day  mat- 
ter, and  why  be  foosthering  over  it? 
But  we  do  four  times  out  five,  ma'am.' 

"  *How  do  you  like  it  the  fifth  time, 
when  you  miss  it?' 

"  *Sure,  it's  no  more  throuble  to  miss 
it  the  wan  time  than  to  hurry  five  times. 
A  clock  is  an  overrated  piece  of  furni- 
ture, to  my  mind,  Mrs.  Beresford, 
ma'am.' " 


[103] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

There  is  a  moderating  counsel  in  this 
point  of  view  for  all  of  us  in  this  age 
and  clime  of  hurry.  We  have  all  sorts 
of  time-saving  devices — telephones  and 
telegraphs,  automobiles  which  *'eat  up 
distances"  and  get  us  there  in  a  flash. 
But,  nevertheless,  with  all  the  time  we 
save,  we  have  no  time  to  spare ;  we  never 
are  at  leisure. 

If  we  would  abate  our  eagerness  for 
the  latest  extra  and  find  time  to  talk 
with  the  octogenarians  in  our  midstp  we 
might  enrich  rather  than  addle  our 
minds,  and  enlarge  rather  than  narrow 
our  outlooks. 

Shane  Leslie,  speaking  of  *'the  ould 
knowledge,"  once  common  among  the 
Irish  people, — meaning  such  knowledge 
as  stopping  the  flow  of  blood  by  some 
charm,  or  finding  an  herb  to  cure  a  fever, 
[104] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


or  divining  signs  or  portents — says  that 
only  those  born  before  the  famine  year 
(1847)  have  any  remnants  of  this  "ould 
knowledge."  It  has  passed  and  is  pass- 
ing. 

Now  this  may  be  only  one  instance 
of  the  loss  of  old  traditions  and  touches, 
some  of  them  really  valuable:  the 
charming  manners  of  the  ancient  re- 
gime, the  leisure  of  the  stage  coach  days, 
the  ability  to  wonder  and  admire,  the 
spirit  of  fealty,  "the  unbought  grace 
of  life." 

There  is  a  pragmatic  and  utilitarian 
view  of  things ;  and  there  is  also  a  poetic 
and  mystic  view.  It  is  for  us  to  learn 
which  is  the  truer  and  wiser  interpreta- 
tion. 

One  man  goes  through  the  crowded 
streets  and  sees  only  the  carriages  of 
[105] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

the  rich  and  the  grandeur  of  the  show 
windows ;  another  sees  only  the  faces  of 
the  passers-by  and  the  joy  or  the  trag- 
edy revealed  in  their  eyes ;  one  is  moved 
by  the  spirit  of  greed,  the  other  by  the 
emotion  of  charity.  How  much  more 
an  angel  would  see  than  a  mere  grubber, 
and  how  much  higher  the  angelic  in- 
terpretation ! 

Many  elements  enter  into  the  vision 
we  get  of  things ;  there  is  association  and 
memory,  there  are  moods,  experiences, 
and  temperaments.  There  is  also  un- 
doubtedly the  influence  of  hereditary 
traits. 

Those  who  inherit  something  of  the 
Celtic  way  of  looking  upon  life  may 
be  less  practical;  but  they  clothe  their 
perceptions  with  pleasing  glamours  or 
with  witching  and  eerie  backgrounds 
[106] 


IRISH  IDEALISM 


that  give  a  peculiar  zest  and  flavor,  and 
perhaps  a  fuller  meaning,  to  many 
things.  We  need,  in  this  very  practical 
age,  to  appreciate  rather  than  to  dis- 
parage this  unworldly  Irish  way  of  look- 
ing at  things.  We  need  to  cherish  this 
gift  of  the  Celt  as  something  which  truly 
enriches  life. 

What  sort  of  people  have  been  bred 
out  of  such  traits,  such  trials,  such 
ideals,  and  such  a  history ;  and  how  shall 
we  forecast  their  future?  The  literary 
daughter  of  a  distinguished  Irish- 
American  soldier  of  our  Civil  War 
(Colonel  Guiney)  gives  us  this  answer 
in  a  paragraph,  written  with  a  fine  in- 
tuition : 

"Time,  which  was  expected  to  bring 
about  no  Ireland,  has  in  reality  engen- 
[107] 


WHY  GOD  LOVES  THE  IRISH 

dered  a  national  life  more  intense  than 
ever.  The  physical  strength,  the  pa- 
tience and  passion  of  the  common 
people;  the  grace,  loyalty,  and  play  of 
thought  of  gentlemen,  have  in  that  na- 
tional life  come  together.  Unique  pa- 
trician wit,  delicacy  of  feeling,  knightly 
courtesy  have  run  out  of  their  allotted 
conduits  and  they  color  the  speech  of 
beggars.  Distinction  of  all  sorts 
sprouts  in  the  unlikeliest  places.  Vio- 
lent Erin  produces  ever  and  anon  the 
gentlest  philosophers;  recluse  Erin 
sends  forth  the  consummate  cosmopol- 
itan, hunted  and  jealous  Erin  holds  up 
on  its  top  stalk  the  open  lily  of  liberal- 
ity— 

"Courteous,  facile,  sweet. 
Hating  the  solemn  vice  of  greatness — 
pride!" 

[108] 


*Lif e  is  too  short  for  reading  inferior  books" — Bryce 


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BOSTON  COLLEGE 


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